By Cheryl Jahn

Parkade pushes Council

Jan 11, 2021 | 11:36 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – It was a detailed report that generated a lot of heated and angry discourse around Council Chambers.

And it has some history, starting in December 2017. That’s when a parkade project was approved in conjunction with a housing project on George Street. Council approved a budget of $12.6 million. By the time the project most recently came back to Council in December, it had ballooned by an additional $11.7 million.

Last night’s report laid out some of the cost increases that were attributed to tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed by the US government as well as a competitive construction market that drove up labour costs.

But what the report laid out were timelines of when costs began to rise and when Council was made aware of it.

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“Did Administration commit to the $20 million parkade before they had the approval of Council?” asked Councillor Brian Skakun. The answer was not immediately forthcoming.

“We gave confirmation we wanted to go ahead with the project,” answered Ian Wells, the Director on Planning at the time, saying that commitment was made to the developer, but not approved by Council.

It was also Wells who pointed out $11.7 million of the project went into the replacement and relocation of utilities, off-site works and the District Energy connections. He noted those systems would have eventually failed due to the age and condition of those decades-old systems.

But it became clear that Administration knew about the cost overruns well before Council was made aware.

According to the report to Council, in September 2019, the developer provided further updates for the project based on tender prices for mechanical, electrical, fire suppression and membrane roofing. Administration was told “the new estimated cost to complete the George Street Parkade was $22.5 million.”

The report goes on the read:

“At the November 18, 2019 Finance and Audit meeting, the Standing Committee received a Financial Report on Significant Capital Projects, which contained the George Street Parkade construction costs, showing the Total Actual as of November 5, 2019 at $16,372,186.”

The suggestion was that the Finance and Audit Committee was told something different than what the the developer told Administration In September.

“You knew before Council approved a $12 million dollar budget,” accused Skakun. “It’s appalling!”

“This is a real travesty,” noted Councillor Terri McConnachie. “It’s egregious. We need to put the package at the doorstep where it belongs. It smells bad.”

Councillor Frank Everitt likened it to a “bad onion,” which only stank stronger with every layer pulled away.

When the issue became a bit clearer near the end of 2020, Council approved changing the delegated authority powers of the City Manager. But Councillor Cori Ramsay took it one step further last night. She sought, and got, unanimous approval for a resolution to have a report come back outlining the delegated spending decisions made for projects for all of 2020 and to have spending decisions reported back to Council quarterly.

“There are a million things about this that are unbelievable,” said Councillor Kyle Sampson. That was moments before he introduced his own motion to bring this matter to bring the issue back to a closed meeting “which may involve legal counsel.”

That resolution was passed unanimously.